Bill Condon and Ian McKellen’s ‘Mr. Holmes’ Gets Stateside Release

Bill Condon and Ian McKellen's 'Mr. Holmes' Gets Stateside Release

Remember Miramax? That was Harvey and Bob Weinstein’s storied company named after their parents. Disney made the brothers leave it behind when they started The Weinstein Co. Since Qatar Holding purchased Miramax in 2010 (with the investor group led by Miramax Chairman Thomas J. Barrack, Jr.’s Colony Capital) Miramax has largely been a library and more recently a television and co-production play. Well, Hollywood veteran Zanne Devine, Miramax’s Executive Vice President, Production and Development, is waking up the little studio, partnering with indie distributor Roadside Attractions on acquiring U.S. rights to Bill Condon’s “Mr. Holmes,” starring Ian McKellen and Laura Linney, which is in post-production.

The “Gods and Monsters” team of Condon and McKellen have reunited to bring us yet another take on Sherlock Holmes– the elder, as opposed to Benedict Cumberbatch or Robert Downey, Jr.’s recent younger versions. Screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher (“Stage Beauty”) adapted the novel “A Slight Trick of the Mind” by Mitch Cullin.

His version of the story begins in 1947 when an aging Holmes (McKellen) returns from Japan, where he was seeking a restorative plant and witnessed the devastation of nuclear war. Settled at a remote seaside farm, Holmes tends to his bees in the company of his housekeeper (Linney) and her young son (Milo Parker) with whom he becomes close–and who helps him revisit an unsolved case.

FilmNation Entertainment is handling international sales.

Miramax is developing projects in both film and TV. Robert Rodriguez’s “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series” was recently renewed for a second season. Development includes “Gangs of New York” with Martin Scorsese and the upcoming production “The 9th Life of Louis Drax,” starring Jamie Dornan (“Fifty Shades of Grey”). Miramax will also release in partnership with Sony’s Screen Gems Jeremy Garelick’s “The Wedding Ringer,” starring Kevin Hart and Josh Gad, set for January 16, 2015.